Foxholes Restoration

A relatively small area 10.75 hectares in total, hosts over half of the Sheffield area’s population of nightjars and the heathland habitat where they live is under threat. If the work to regenerate the heath isn’t done, it will degenerate into scrub and subsequently into woodland. Nightjars thrive on large flying insects abundant on heathland. The work includes scrub control, carefully carried out by hand avoiding favoured song & lookout posts used by the breeding pairs of nightjars; bracken control using a combination of pulling by hand and spraying, then scraping to remove bracken litter, forming bare areas to encourage heather and bilberry to establish. Some areas will be seeded with cut heather brash. Heather will be cut back to offer a mosaic of habitat offering nesting opportunities to the nightjar.